


Mallow Plants

by Maizzy



Series: DA Ficswap Oneshots [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Campfires, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Fluff without Plot, Humor, Skyhold, blushy snarky cullen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 06:18:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4695332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maizzy/pseuds/Maizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Always word your requests to the Skyhold Requisitions Officer carefully - he's new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mallow Plants

**Author's Note:**

  * For [broodywolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/broodywolf/gifts).



> This is a fic for the [DA Ficswap](http://daficswap.tumblr.com/) over on tumblr! 
> 
> Starring [Broodywolf's](http://broodywolf.tumblr.com/) fantastic inquisitor, Alyx Trevelyan.

“Fire him. Fire him now.”

“Fire who now?”

Cullen ran a hand through his hair, standing it on end as he paced back and forth in front of where he had caught Alyx in the great hall. She had been about to slip away to see if Dorian could give her any insight on why _exactly_ the builders had required the entirety of her elfroot supply to add a mage tower to Skyhold, but whatever. The elfroot conversation could wait. Wasn’t like she was going to be getting the plants back either way. 

“The requisitions officer! The new one Josephine hired to replace Threnn. His inexperience is not worth the connections he brings and she will not listen to me when I try to-“

“Wait, back up about five conversational steps and tell me what exactly is going on,” Alyx interrupted, cocking a hip. 

Cullen dropped his hand from his hair, and stopped pacing. The waves of indignation still rolled off of him, but now at least they seemed directed towards sweeping her at the source of his problem. With a jerk of his chin at a side door, he took off, leaving Alyx to follow. 

That had a few distinct benefits scenery-wise. Recently, she had become very well acquainted with the derriere heralding Cullen’s exit to courtyard. Though it was covered at the moment, she could still appreciate the way the muscles of his hindquarters stretched and pulled at the fabric of his trousers. Hell, half of Skyhold took a large amount of time each day to appreciate just that, though she was the only one that had been blessed enough to snag a look at it sans-trousers. 

He was so damned _attractive_. It was a problem, really. He was an ex-templar - just the idea that she had fallen for him in the first place was preposterous. Unthinkable. And yet, here they were, her staring at his ass as he lead the way to the courtyard and her nearly tripping over her feet as she dwelled on the activities of a few nights previous. 

Cullen slammed the door open and stood, wordless, one hand held out to point at the cause of his distress.

Scattered all over the tiny courtyard were tents. Tents on tents on tents. Ones made of plaid weave, ones faintly glowing, ones frustratingly blocking the sunlight for her new batch of elfroot (dammit), and ones so big that she was willing to bet even more tents were stored inside.

Alyx stared.“Are we… hosting a circus? Someone probably should have informed me of that.”

“I requisitioned new tents for our scouts last week, as Harding informed me that the current tents were not up to the task of protecting her people from the elements in the Emprise du Lion. Apparently our requisitions officer was… eager to provide _options._ ” His eyebrows pulled further together on that last word, frown deepening. 

Alyx snorted. “Alright, fine. As you command, Commander. I’ll fire him. He’ll be out of Skyhold by tonight.” She turned to leave, making to pull open the door back to the great hall, but a hand caught her wrist. His fingers stayed loose, a restraint, but not one she could not get away from. That was one thing about him being an ex-templar that she appreciated - he knew. He knew how life was for circle mages, even if he had been on the other side of the prison bars. Their lives were spent caged, trapped by the chantry and templars, held down with an iron grip. Correspondingly, he had been incredibly gentle with her every step of the way to… wherever exactly it was they were now. He knew that she had disliked him immediately upon sight in Haven. He even knew that she had watched him with distrust and disdain for months. _She_ had not quite known that while she had watched him with that distrust and disdain, he had been quietly watching her back with respect and even a bit of admiration. That one had caught her off-guard.

“Inquisitor, I… perhaps I overreacted,” Cullen said, visibly deflating from his moment of ire. 

Alyx turned back to him, sliding her wrist up from his grip until she could lace her fingers with his. “Perhaps?” She asked, raising a brow. 

He snorted. “Perhaps a bit more than perhaps.”

“How very self-aware of you.”

“I do try. Every once in a while, at least.” Cullen gave her fingers a squeeze and dropped her hand, looking around the courtyard. “I suppose we could arrange for off-duty scouts to test them out as long as they’re set up.”

“I’m sure they’ll absolutely adore being commanded not to sleep in their beds.”

Cullen chuckled. “Yes, well, maybe we’ll ply them with offerings of s’mores and have done with it.”

Before she could stop herself, Alyx tilted her head to one side, confusion getting the better of her at his turn of phrase. 

The movement caught Cullen’s eye and he glanced back at her, raising a brow at her long pause.

She was missing something. She just knew it. These sorts of incidents had gotten much rarer since she had joined the inquisition. Gone were the days when she’d have to pretend that yeah, definitely, she knew what a “snow shoe” or a “coconut” were. Once in a while, though, something would still manage to throw her for a loop.

“’Some more… of what?” 

Cullen stared. 

“Like more… free time? Pay? Because that is absolutely something Josephine can deal with. Leave me out of it.”

Cullen stared.

“Oh, stop looking at me like that!” Alyx finally huffed after the smile spreading over Cullen’s face had grown into a full and proper grin. 

“Inquisitor, I… meet me back here tonight at sundown, if you can. There are a few errands I need to see about.”

“Okay,” Alyx started to say, but Cullen was already halfway back through the door. 

She went about her day, curious as to why Cullen seemed to be absent from his normal duties. There were not many things that would free him from the clutches of his endless scouts, but this… “something more” seemed to be one of them. Alyx didn’t have much on her schedule for the day past crafting some new armor for herself, but she did make a point of stopping by the nervous requisitions officer to let him know that he was doing an excellent job, and that the commander greatly appreciated his thoroughness. When nightfall came, she made her way out to the courtyard once again. 

A rosy glow shown through the sea of tents, lighting up the fabric of the the thinner ones and peeking through the cracks between the others. Her elfroots were still decidedly covered. Alyx wove her way into the gaudy mess to find Cullen crouched next to a fire and surprisingly alone; no scouts to test the tents, no hovering Josephine going over last minute war table matters, no one else at all in the courtyard. The only other thing besides Cullen and the tents was a small table covered in… things? They appeared to be misshapen eggs. Her stomach rolled and suddenly she was not so sure she wanted to know what “more” entailed. 

“Inquisitor,” Cullen greeted with a nod, and a small smile. His eyes passed over the tents around him before the smile grew and he pulled her into his arms and a devastatingly sweet kiss. 

When they broke apart, he grabbed a stick from the table next to the bowl of weird eggs and pushed it into her hands. 

“It’s… a stick-“

“Don’t even make the joke,” Cullen cut in, turning a little red as he grabbed a stick of his own. 

“Perish the thought, Commander. I’d like to think that I’m at least above awful puns by now.”

“Yes, well-“

“They aren’t even _hard_ to make.”

“Inquisitor.”

“So I’ll just stand here quietly, holding your wood-“

“Alyx! Maker…"

She stopped, reveling in the glorious blush that had completely consumed his face in the firelight. 

He cleared his throat and tried to begin again, “Anyway, s’mores.”

“Right. ’Som’mores’,” she echoed, feeling a bit dimwitted by the way the two words mashed together and rolled off her tongue. 

Alyx watched as Cullen reached into the bowl of horrifying eggs and plucked one out. He then stuck it right on the end of the stick he held in his other hand - no dripping yolk, no cracking shell involved. 

“Ew,” she commented, unsure of what to think of the white ball that apparently was much… gooier than she had anticipated.

Cullen laughed. “No, no, look, you… Oh here.” He grabbed a second not-egg from the bowl and popped it into his mouth, chewing as he held the stick out to the fire. It seemed to take an abnormally long time to masticate, but eventually he swallowed and got out the words, “Marshmallows are actually quite delicious.”

Alyx made a face. “Marsh… mallow? Is this something Sera picked up while we were tromping through the Fallow Mire?”

“We used to eat these as children, my brother and I.  They’re made by cooking down the root of the mallow plant and adding sugar.”

“That right there sounds like a recipe for a stomach ache,” Alyx commented, watching as Cullen pulled the “marsh mallow” out of the flames, blowing on it a little to put out the fire that had engulfed it. It was now an oozing, blackened non-egg. 

“Well, at least they’re flammable. Think we could make them into some sort of grenade?”

He ignored the question, instead asking, “Hand me one of those sweet biscuits?”

She obliged. Cullen cupped the hand she held the cookie in with one of his and slid the gooey blackened mass on top of the biscuit, sighing, “shouldn’t have let it burn” under his breath. 

“Is this something you actually expect me to put in my mouth?” Alyx choked out. The melted, oozing thing had gooshed over onto her finger. 

“Not quite yet. One more thing to add.” Cullen rummaged around the table and produced a piece of chocolate, setting it neatly on top of the “marsh mallow”, capping the whole thing off with another cookie. “ _Now_ I expect you to eat it,” he said, stepping back and gesturing with an expansive arm towards his slightly-teetering creation. 

Alyx stared at the thing in her hand long and hard. She really didn’t want it anywhere near her mouth - chocolate or no. “And, what, I’m just going to want ’s’more’ of this after I’ve had a bite?” She asked, looking up at him in consternation.  

“I do believe that is where the original name came from, yes,” he said with a chuckle. “Give it a try?”

Nothing short of his amused, hopeful face could’ve made Alyx _not_ immediately chuck the monstrosity into the fire. If eating this disgusting thing for him wasn’t a sign of love, she didn’t know what was. 

Alyx lifted the ’s’more’ to her mouth and took a small bite. Immediately she was hit with the best combination of flavors ever to grace her taste buds. Honey from the biscuits, a sharp bitterness from the chocolate and _holy maker_ , the sweet, buttery flavor of the marshmallow. All melted together from the fire to form the very definition of dessert. 

Alyx let out a low groan of pleasure as she went back in for another bite and Cullen’s face lit up. 

“Told you they were good,” he said softly. 

She could only nod as she polished off the _miracle_ she hadn’t realized she had been missing out on her whole life. 

Cullen walked closer to her, watching as she licked the last little bits of pure, melted happiness from her fingers. 

“You missed a spot.”

He reached up, running a thumb along her lip.

“You might need to take a closer look,” Alyx suggested, looking up at him as she felt the heat creep up into her cheeks and down to a few other places. 

“As you say, Inquisitor,” he murmured, catching her chin in his hand and pressing his lips to hers. He gently sucked her bottom lip between his own, tongue flicking along it and Alyx melted, almost as thoroughly as the marshmallow. She linked her arms behind his back, leaning into the warm, slow kiss, reveling in the comfortable heat of the fire at her back and the comfortable heat of the man standing before her. 

They broke away after a time, both breathing a little harder than they perhaps had been moments before. 

“Cullen… the scouts. The tents. We should probably…”

He brushed his hand over her cheek, before sliding it down over her shoulder to the small of her back. 

“I… decided it would be more prudent to test them ourselves, if you found that idea agreeable.” He leaned back a little, studying her face, looking slightly worried. 

Alyx made a show of thinking it over, though she couldn’t help the smile that had spread over her face at his words. “Agreed. On one condition, though.”

“Hmm?”

“I need some more s’mores first.”

Cullen laughed and swooped back in for another kiss.

Though they became a bit sidetracked from making more of the confections, the rest of the night lost none of its sweetness. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So... this is my first time writing any Cullenmance. Hopefully I didn't butcher anything too badly.


End file.
